You Don't Have to Get Fat!

Will you be a statistic in the battle of the bulge? It's looking pretty grim: In the past two decades, the number of seriously overweight women in their 20s shot up by more than 60 percent, according to government statistics. Nearly half of women in their 30s and more than half of women in their 40s are overweight. While there is no crystal ball that will reveal the fat in your future, this feature can help you assess whether you're on a fast track to fatness -- and help you tip the scales in your favor.

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Fat Factors:
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Researchers estimate that genes may be as much as 70 percent responsible for how much you weigh. Each question you answer with a "yes" is a likely clue to the course of your weight over time.

Are your parents overweight?
If one of your parents is heavy, your chances of becoming overweight are higher -- higher still if both parents are heavy. But while your genetic makeup may influence your tendency toward fatness or leanness, you don't inherit an exact weight, but a range of possible weights. Where you fall within that range will vary according to what you eat and how much you exercise, according to Gary Foster, Ph.D., clinical director of the weight and eating disorders program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

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While you may physically resemble your heavier parent, the genes for appearance and weight gain are separate, says Michael Rosenbaum, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics and clinical medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. "You can have the facial appearance of your mother, who is heavy, but have the weight-gain genes of your father, who is thin. Or vice versa." As for body shape: "Apples" beget "apples" and "pears" produce "pears," but again, the genes for body shape and body fatness are not the same.

Did one or both of your parents become overweight in midlife?
Growth patterns, including girth, seem to be inherited. If either parent was slim and then gained a significant amount at about 50, keep close tabs on your own waistline as you get older.

Did your mother gain weight with pregnancy?
Weight gain and fat distribution during pregnancy probably reflect genetic influences, but how your body responds to any event is influenced by genes from both parents, says Rosenbaum, so your weight fate won't necessarily match that of your mother.

In a recent government study, only one in five women who were trying to lose weight was doing it the right way: by both cutting calories and increasing exercise. If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, your reducing efforts may be backfiring.

Are you cutting fat, but not calories?
Forty percent of women dieters focus only on cutting fat. Don't fall for the fat-free trap. A two-ounce bag of fat-free jelly beans contains 210 calories -- about the same as a chocolate bar. Your body considers all calories the same, whether they come from carbohydrates, protein or fat.

Are you oblivious to portion sizes?
When your eye gets accustomed to humongous restaurant servings, it's easy to lose track of what a three-ounce portion of meat, a half cup of rice, or a one-ounce muffin looks like. Measure them out to refresh your memory. You don't have to carry a set of measuring cups with you. Your palm, fingers, and thumbs can be very handy in guesstimating portions. For example, a serving the size of your palm represents about three ounces of, say, meat or fish; a serving the size of your thumb represents about an ounce of, say, cheese; a serving the size of your thumb tip represents about a teaspoon of, say, butter or mayo; a serving the size of your fingertip represents about a half-teaspoon; your cupped hand carries about 2 tablespoons of liquid; and your fist represents a serving size of about a cup.

Do you go back to your old habits after reaching your weight-loss goal?
If so, be prepared to gain it all back. "If you want to maintain a lower weight, whatever changes you made to lose the weight must be continued well beyond the period of weight loss," says Rosenbaum.

Is your scale gathering dust?
People who lose weight and manage to keep it off tend to weigh themselves frequently and take action right away when they gain a few pounds.

Only one in three women trying to lose weight exercises for 150 minutes per week, the minimum level of physical activity recommended for all Americans. In order to find out how active you really are, ask yourself these questions:

How many hours a day do you spend sitting? (Include TV time and driving time in your total.)
If you're like most of us, you drastically underestimate how much time you spend sitting. Now that you know, you can plot ways to get up and get moving.

Do you depend on technology?
The computer, email, the TV remote, and the garage-door opener all save you time, but with each "saving" you burn fewer calories. Do things the old-fashioned way and engineer more activity into your days. There's a direct relationship between energy expenditure and weight, says William Dietz, M.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How many minutes of activity do you work into each week?
You should shoot for 150 to 200 minutes, says Foster. The newest recommendations suggest 30 minutes of daily activity, in intermittent bouts of 10 to 20 minutes. Walking counts; so do activities such as washing the car or sweeping.

One thing's for sure: Overeating has never been easier. Food is everywhere. If you have kids, trips to the drive-thru can become a way of life. Your kitchen's probably chock-full of tempting goodies too. Unless you have a will of iron, grabbing an extra bite here and there is hard to avoid. Be brutally honest -- your answers can help uncover the secret source of extra calories and pounds.

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Do you eat off your kids' plates?
If you can't stand the thought of wasting food, serve your kids smaller portions; they can always ask for seconds.

Do you eat while you cook?
If you nibble at the stove and then follow it up with a full-size meal, your calorie intake may be double your best estimates.

Do you match your husband bite for bite?
On average, men burn 25 percent more calories than women. Unless you're significantly more active than your spouse, eating the way he does is almost sure to add pounds.

Do you buy snacks for the kids -- and end up eating them yourself?
You probably don't really need that bag of cookies or tortilla chips; your kids probably don't either.

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Do you raid the fridge at the end of the day?
Figure out why you're so famished. Maybe you need to eat a bigger lunch or have a 3pm snack. At the very least, you can stock your fridge with lighter, more healthful bites, such as precut veggies and fruit or hard-boiled eggs.

Do you eat on the run?
If your "meals" consist of a yogurt here and a handful of crackers there, chances are good that you never feel satisfied and have no idea how much you've eaten, two factors that can lead to overeating. Try to set aside time to sit down for a substantial but healthful lunch and dinner to fuel your busy life.

Keeping Track of the Extra Bites
If your answers were heavy on the "yesses," keep a one-week food diary that tracks everything you put in your mouth; jot down not just what you're eating but also the time and circumstances. Target the most painless ways to cut calories and implement them one by one.

Eating when you're frustrated, tired, bored, or in need of a pat on the back can be a major predictor of weight problems, says Beth McKinney, R.D., a nutritionist at the Cornell University Wellness Program in Ithaca, NY. How well do any of the following describe your patterns?

Do you pig out when you're stressed?
Yes, food is comforting and soothing. It doesn't judge, criticize, or make demands on you -- even when you abuse it. There's nothing wrong with using food this way occasionally, but if it becomes a habit or you're always stressed, watch out -- you'll be wearing extra pounds.

Do you eat to improve your mood?
If every tough day at work sends you to the office vending machine or boredom on the home front starts you foraging in the fridge, you'd be better off with a more constructive coping strategy. Nurture yourself with nonfood activities: Exercise, a potent mood-booster and energizer, can be a way to carve out time for yourself. Or call a friend to get you out of a funk. Or tell your kids you need a hug.

Do you eat to reward yourself?
For many women, once the kids are off to bed or a project is done, it's time for a special treat. Set an easy goal: Instead of having that bottomless dish of ice cream every night, cut back to half a cup (yes, measure it) three times a week, suggests McKinney. You could easily save around 1,800 calories each week. Or you might indulge yourself by buying a good novel (lock yourself in the bathroom so you'll be undisturbed!).

SMART MOVE: GET TO THE HEART OF YOUR HUNGER!
The key with emotional eating is to recognize not only that you're doing it, but also how often and to what extent, says McKinney. Sometimes therapy can help you deal with the tougher underlying issues.

Of all the times in a woman's life, pregnancy is one of the riskiest for permanent weight gain. While the average woman retains just one to five pounds with each pregnancy, 10 to 20 percent of women hold on to 30 or more pounds -- and multiple pregnancies may bring further weight increases, says Jennifer C. Lovejoy, Ph.D., chief of women's nutrition research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA.

Your risk for added pounds goes up if: You gain weight early in your pregnancy.
Excess weight accumulated during the first trimester contributes minimally to the birth weight of your baby -- it just adds to your own body-fat stores. "While it's never appropriate to diet or try to lose weight while you're pregnant, don't view the first trimester of pregnancy as a license to overeat," says Lovejoy. If you start gaining right from the start of your pregnancy, you need to reassess your eating habits. Forget about "eating for two." The actual recommended increase in daily caloric intake is only 300 calories per day in the second and third trimesters. That's not the caloric equivalent of unlimited ice cream; it's just two glasses of low-fat milk and one piece of fruit.

You gain more than your doctor recommends.
The more you gain during pregnancy, the more you'll retain afterward. Since weight-gain recommendations vary depending on your prepregnancy weight, make sure you're clear on the amount of weight you should be gaining.

You're unable to get back to your prebaby eating habits.
New motherhood may make getting back to your old habits difficult. But, Lovejoy speculates, it's also possible that for some women, hormonal changes during pregnancy trigger changes in eating patterns that make it harder to control food and calorie intake even after their baby is born. You have several children close together.
"When children are closely spaced [less than two years apart], women may not have time to regain their prepregnancy body composition; they have more body fat and less lean tissue. If you have more fat and less lean tissue during your second pregnancy, your metabolic rate may be lower, predisposing you to additional weight gain," says Lovejoy.

You breast-feed for less than six months.
Breast-feeding exclusively for six months or longer may help reduce your fat stores, but breast-feeding for a relatively short period of time (or bottle-feeding as well as nursing) won't help with postpartum weight loss.

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You feel more hassled than happy.
Though motherhood brings many new pleasures and satisfactions, Lovejoy found that, on average, women who had experienced the largest weight gain also reported fewer pleasurable events in their lives. These women weren't clinically depressed, says Lovejoy. "It's possible that these moms experienced an overall quality-of-life change," she says. And they may have used food (an always-accessible pleasure) as a coping mechanism.

YOUR PREGNANCY-POUNDS PREDICTOR
Do these statements sound as if they're describing you? Then you know where your weight has (or will) come from. If your weight is higher than your doctor thinks it should be six weeks after you've given birth, that's the time to make a commitment to getting the weight off as soon as possible. The last of your pregnancy gains should be gone within a year. (Whether or not you're breast-feeding, ask your doctor to refer you to a dietitian. You can also call the American Dietetic Association at (800) 366-1655, or visit www.eatright.org to get a local referral.)

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Your risk for added pounds goes down if: You return to work after giving birth.
This seems to speed postpartum weight loss, perhaps because it makes it easier to return to your prepregnancy eating habits.

You exercise during pregnancy.
If you work out consistently, you're less likely to retain excess weight afterward, particularly if you stay active after your baby arrives.